Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019 (Read 260 times)

Marky_Mark_17

posted: 2/16/2019 at 2:25 PM

JMac - nice week even despite the niggles. The clicking sounds like there was a bit of a kneecap tracking issue as well?

Me - reasonable sort of week, for a post-race week. Last year my legs were trashed for about a week after Coatesville HM... this year wasn't nearly as bad but there was still a little bit of fatigue lurking around. Had a reasonable long-ish workout on Saturday but the legs were a little tired for Sunday's LR so I cut probably 10-15 minutes off. The upside was I actually discovered a route home out of the Wairau Valley and over the hill which doesn't suck nearly as much as the other options.

M: 5.8km recovery

T: weights

W: 13.4km with some short efforts

T: 11.1km easy

F: weights

S: 21km incl. longer efforts

S: 25.5km long run

Total: 76.8km

With wifey away the next couple of weeks, I'm gonna have to run at slightly later times. It's probably good from a heat acclimatisation point of view but I'm gonna have to be a bit flexible about length and intensity of runs, so we'll see how it goes.

Had an ok tempo on Monday, my first one of 5 miles. 6:49/mile was a decent pace, though the last couple of miles, when I sped up, were a bit harder than tempo effort. Felt sluggish the rest of the week; not sure whether I was tired or whether allergies were affecting me, but I cut back my volume a little. I need to decide in the next couple of days whether to run a March 2 half or a March 9 one; would prefer March 2 as long as the weather cooperates. Right now one of the forecasting companies predicts rain on March 2 & the other sun, so I’ll wait to see if they converge one way or the other.

MMC - big fan of trigger point therapy. I use an electronic massage on all my niggles now (bought it about a month ago), or rolling it out hard. When I first started running, I had a bunch of stuff in my hips and glutes, always thought I was injured. However, after getting TP needle therapy, they all went away.

MMC - big fan of trigger point therapy. I use an electronic massage on all my niggles now (bought it about a month ago), or rolling it out hard. When I first started running, I had a bunch of stuff in my hips and glutes, always thought I was injured. However, after getting TP needle therapy, they all went away.

I initially read this as ‘massage on all my nipples’. Then the ROFLcopter crashed into the LOLcano.

T: 20x (1 min at 5:00/km + 1 min at 3:40/km). Roughly 200m in one minute followed by 260m in one minute. Nailed it!

F: Functional training

S: 12K @ 4:31 - roughly my MP right now

S: 6ez

This week I paid a visit to a local famous physiotherapist. He's worked with several professional sports team and is known to be an expert diagnostician.

I've asked him to check both my right arm injury (which I have since a failed movement during a Turkish Get up Back in October last year.

He identified it as a tendinopathy on the biceps (the long one that attaches to the shoulder). The root cause is a tight pectoral muscle, which limits my backwards arm mobility.

Treatment is stretching the pectoral muscle and work on shoulder mobility.

I've also asked him to diagnose my lack of dorsiflexion on the left side.

On the dorsiflexion lunge test, seen below, the minimum required is roughly 12.5cm (5in) on both sides, and I have 9cm on the left side.

That limits my movement when I step on the ground and makes me run slightly to the right side. It seems to cause a lot of the niggles I have on the left calf, hamstring and glutes.

He found the root cause to be tight muscles on the back (due to sitting around too much), but also complete lack of foot flexibility. My foot is very arched and is very rigid (so many "that's what she said" jokes in this paragraph ).

Treatment is to stretch the back muscles and strengthen the tibial muscles. As for the rigid foot, the solution is to be born again

MMC - big fan of trigger point therapy. I use an electronic massage on all my niggles now (bought it about a month ago), or rolling it out hard. When I first started running, I had a bunch of stuff in my hips and glutes, always thought I was injured. However, after getting TP needle therapy, they all went away.

Mark - with your wife away, do you run with your daughter? Or is someone home that takes care of the kid? Asking these questions because eventually we may try for kids and just wondering how all the parents out there keep up their running so much.

Flavio - as you may have heard, healthcare in America is crap. I’d have to go see a doctor first before seeing a PT, which is total crap because I agree with your assessment. I’ve never found doctors to be useful, but PTs have taught me so much. You’re right that there probably is something wrong in the entire chain. Your personal example proves that, would love to get that assessment!

Just tried the Dorsiflexion move out of curiosity. 3-4cm at most (that makes for a pretty bitter "das what she said" joke). I am out with a bronchitis that I caught while skiing in the best possible conditions, eventhough I wasnt able to fully take advantage of the pow because I suck even harder at skiing than I do at running. Havent had a bronchitis in a long time and am just lounging on the couch all day

Jmac: re kids - the stroller for running isnt recommended until after 12 months due to the constant shocks to the spine - or at least thats what I recall having read somewhere. But I am no expert in that field. Now on the "trying" thing, feel free to reach out for tips

Marky_Mark_17

posted: 2/17/2019 at 1:58 PM

JMac - yeah it's generally a combination of daycare/nanny during the week and family on the weekends. We had a nanny up until the end of last year who was more or less full-time during the week, and now our daughter is in daycare 5 days/week. The in-laws all live close by so they're normally more than happy to help out. The plan for the next two weeks will be to get weekday runs in after dropping her off to daycare, and for weekend runs I'll get the inlaws to come over and babysit. The weekday runs will take a chunk out of work hours, but I'm lucky that my work has been giving flexible working a big push lately, so I can balance it out by getting some work done from home before she gets up, or after she's gone to bed.

Others have mastered the stroller miles but I never really attempted that (mostly because my runs are generally before DD wakes up!).

Flavio- man, the injury saga continues! At least now you are starting to actually get down to some diagnoses of the root causes.

Well after getting into a head space where I would use Christchurch as a goal race and give myself an out for the Waterfront, it turns out that the holiday will rule out Christchurch after all. To be fair, I should be in shape to have a crack at the Waterfront, it's just the demons of last year giving me some doubts. I get back from the States 5 days before Christchurch and I will run on holiday but I don't plan to do the race, or if I do it will be a last minute decision and will be a training run.

On the dorsiflexion lunge test, seen below, the minimum required is roughly 12.5cm (5in) on both sides, and I have 9cm on the left side.

Pardon the intrusion, but I'm curious - is that standard universal, or one that applies to you, based on your height and build? I would think that the clearance one could achieve would depend on the lengths of one's foot and tibia, as well as the relative proportions of the two.

Pardon the intrusion, but I'm curious - is that standard universal, or one that applies to you, based on your height and build? I would think that the clearance one could achieve would depend on the lengths of one's foot and tibia, as well as the relative proportions of the two.

I honestly have no idea

PRs: 1500m 4:57 5K 18:05 10K 38:12 HM 1h24 Full 3h15

watsonc123

posted: 2/17/2019 at 6:06 PM

It has to be individual due to height differences etc. Even foot size would effect this.